Growing Up
by awkwardsilences
Summary: What happens when Luca finds herself back in Lima?
1. Chapter 1

_[intro] _

It's weird how it works when you're young. Nothing seems more important that who will play with you, or the Disney channel, or who you're going to share the swings with. It's amazing how it all changes once you're older; what's amazing is how little some things will change. Like you're stuck in the same place at the same time everyday; that's what it was like with him.

[one]

"_Do you want to play in the sandbox with me?" a young boy approached my friend Amelia and I on the swing sets. "My name is Finn." I smiled shyly as Amelia nodded in response while I just stared. I was taking in all of his features; dark brown hair, deep chocolate eyes, rosy cheeks, and a crooked smile. At the ripe old age of eight I experienced my first crush. I nodded, following Amelia's, lead and a small smile made its way to my lips._

That's where it all started. That was a simple enough question with an even simpler response. I laughed out loud, much to the annoyance of my math class, "Ms. Boyd is there a problem?"

I dropped the pencil in my hand and looked to meet the gaze of my teacher, "No Ma'am, there's not a problem that I can see." I smiled.

"Then would you mind telling me the answer to the question on the board?"

She had me caught; I had no idea what the question or the answer was. "Negative two?" it was more of a question then an answer.

"I don't know how you do it, but that's correct." She frowned at me before continuing on with her plan. Fifteen minutes later I was back in my trance thinking back to all my years of school. Before long I was snapped out of my day dreams by an obnoxious ringing that could be heard throughout the school; seventh period had ended. "Ms. Boyd, may I speak with you please?"

"Of course and I also wanted to apologize for my behavior, it was rude." I smiled.

"It's okay, just remember that you're other teachers at this new school won't be as understanding. They don't know you like we do here, so just tread lightly miss."

"I'm going to miss you Aunt Liza."

"I'll miss you too kiddo. I'll meet you at the house after my date to help you pack." She hugged me gently and kissed the side of my head before pushing me in the direction of the door. "Now go before I cry."

I shrugged my shoulders in response and made my way to the parking lot of the school. "Taluca!" I whipped my head around to see Casey running towards me, "last ride from school I'll ever be giving you, aren't you just devastated?" she was always one for mellow dramatics.

"… and excited." I smirked. Locking arms with her, "I'm going to miss you too." I laughed.

[&takeachance]

The car ride home was silent; I could tell Casey was going to miss me, just as I would miss her. But I was excited to be going back to Ohio. We had moved when I was twelve and landed here in Florida. Not exactly where I wanted to be, after a while all the beaches lost their novelty and I began to miss home. What I had missed most was my friends, well, mostly just one. It has been four years; I doubted he would remember me anyways.

A lot can change in four years.

"Luca are you ready to pack?" I heard a gruff voice echo from the end hall.

"Ready when you are, Brand." I called back from the kitchen. Grabbing an apple I made my way down the long hallway to my room. I stopped at the bathroom door to see my brother messing with his hair in the mirror. "When did you get here?" I questioned. "How did you get IN?"

"Spare key." He smirked. "I used to live here too ya know. Now, how long are Mom and Dad gone for?"

"No clue. I know that they'll be gone until the big one-seven."

"You better be spectacular." He huffed.

"An angel." Sarcasm dripped from my words.

"I'm serious, Luca. This is huge, I'm only twenty-two, and I don't want you to die on my watch, "deal?"

"Yeah, yeah." I waved my hand in his direction walking across the narrow hallway to my room. "Deal, it's a deal, calm down." There wasn't another word spoken between us until my Aunt showed up to help me pack up the rest of my things. "There's just a few things left and then we're on our way out and you're a free woman." I laughed trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh, shut up, you know I'm going to miss you. You're my favorite niece, Luca."

"I'm you're ONLY niece." I laughed a bit harder before pushing myself up from the center of my room and wrapping my arms around my Aunt, tightly this time, so she knew I meant it. "I love you and I'm going to miss you too, Aunt Liza." I felt her shake lightly in my arms before I let my own cascade of tears fall down my cheeks. After we were done crying, we finished the packing process, and loaded everything into the large moving van in my driveway. It had been such a calm day, I felt like everything was at peace, nothing could have ruined my mood. I was going back to the place I felt I belonged; Lima, Ohio.

Somewhere between the gas station hot dog that I was still digesting in my stomach and falling asleep, we made it. I woke up just as we were pulling into the driveway of our new home. From what I could see of the outside it was going to be amazing. The fist thing I noticed was the wrap-around-porch, followed by the royal purple door, and matching shutters. The house itself was a two-story, cream color, which looked beautiful with the rich purple as an accent. "Well, go on, go check out your room." I could hear Brandon laughing as I sprinted towards the front door and a vague "Top of the stairs…first door on the left!" was shouted just as I threw open the door and kicked my shoes off. I followed his directions and made it to the room that would be mine for the next year and slowly pushed open the door.

It was beautiful. The walls were a deep sea-foam green, with floral print window accents, and lush brown carpet that I could feel beneath my bare feet. Directly in front of me was a long window, with a large cushioned bench that connected to it, and a little further back was my bed. Across from my king size bed was my desk and laptop which I had shipped the week before. I quickly ran back downstairs and into my brother's waiting arms, "it's beautiful!" I screeched.

"I'm glad you like it." He smiled back. "I wasn't sure that I knew anything about you anymore, I haven't seen you in forever it feels like."

"It's absolutely perfect, I wouldn't change a thing." I laughed, "You're the best brother ever." We spent the rest of our day unpacking my things. Sometime around seven in the evening we realized we were hungry. Deciding on the diner around the corner we jumped into his Hummer (which I'll never understand why he had), other than the fact that its bright purple, the car wasn't really all that amazing. Pulling into the parking lot of Fred's Diner I began to laugh at another of my brother's attempts at conversation which ended in, "I'm sure you'll make more interesting friends than me, I mean come on, it's not going to be hard, and you start school next week."

"I wish you thought higher of yourself." I laughed again. The familiar ding of the bell above the door greeted us, as did the older women with obviously self dyed, red hair. I waved in response and took a booth towards the back corner of the diner.

"Hi, my name is Greta, and I'll be you're waitress this evening." She shot us a fake smile and smacked her gum loudly between her teeth, which I noticed had smudges of fire engine red lipstick across them.

"Hi, I'm Taluca, and I'll be one of the customers you'll be serving this evening." I gave a small wave, "may I have an orange soda, please?"

"I'll have a diet coke, thanks." My brother smiled as she wrote down our drink orders and disappeared through the swinging doors that obviously lead to the kitchen. "I'm starving." Roughly twenty minutes later my brother and I had ordered and were now eating our food. Satisfied with our meals, we paid out bill, and then made the venture home. By midnight I was out.


	2. Chapter 2

[[two]]

_I'm stuck in this fuckin' rut_

_Waiting on a second hand pick me up_

_And I'm over getting older_

_If I could just find the time_

_Then I wouldn't let another day go by_

_I'm over getting old_

_Maybe it's not my weekend_

_But it's gonna be my year_

_And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass_

_As I go no where_

_And this is my reaction _

_To everything I feel_

_'cause I've been going crazy I don't wanna waste another minute here._

I woke up to my alarm blaring through the speakers on my phone, turning over and shutting it off I glanced at the time. The clock read '6:00a.m.' it was officially Monday; my first day at William McKinley High School. I made my way out of bed and over to the curtains, parting them I noticed a girl around my age doing the same and then making her way over to some sort of exercise machine. I shrugged my shoulders at myself and shook my head making my way towards the bathroom. An hour later I was walking out and letting my naturally wavy hair fall into its normal place. I walked into my bedroom and threw on the denim skinny jeans I had laid out the night before with a long, black, tank top under a red, plaid button down shirt. It was loose around my flat stomach and came to just below my hip bones. This by far was my favorite outfit I had bought for the new school year.

I ran down stairs and slipped on my black flats, I stood at five-foot-seven-inches; I was comfortable in my height. Heels made my feet hurt, so I usually avoid them at all costs. I quickly ate a cup of fruit and darted towards the front door swiftly grabbing my backpack off of the kitchen stool before exiting and locking the door behind me. It was nice out, so instead of driving in the car my brother had picked up from my parents at the airport, I decided I was going to walk. Fall was such a pretty time in Ohio; I loved looking at the different shades of orange, yellow, and red in all of the leaves. I paused and pulled my iPod out of my backpack and stuck the ear buds in my ears and turned on my Brand New playlist before continuing on my path. I lived about a fifteen minute walk from the school; literally in the same neighborhood. This of course was probably why I was unaware of the girl following only steps behind me until she actually reached out and grabbed me. I turned to face her and saw her close her mouth, realizing she had probably been speaking to me, I pulled my ear buds out, "I'm sorry, can you repeat that? I had ear buds in." I grinned sheepishly.

"I said hello." She smiled, "my name is Rachel. I think you moved in next door to my house."

"Yeah, I think so, my name is Taluca, but my friends call me Luca." I extended my hand towards her and smiled, "nice to meet you. Would you mind showing me around?" I rubbed the back of my neck. "Gosh I hate being the new girl." I laughed again before turning around and continuing on my way, only this time at a slower pace so I could talk to Rachel more. "So is there anything worth knowing about at this school?"

"No, nothing really well, I mean, there's Glee… but you'd have to try out, although we are always interested in more people. It's not really a try-out per say it's more… to show us what we're going to be working with." She smiled brightly and then looked away from me. "Can you sing?"

"I love to sing actually, all of my elective classes are music related." I smiled back before realizing that we had already made it to the front doors of the school. "Huge." I took a deep breath and pushed through the first crowd to find my locker. "1513?" I handed my paper to Rachel and smiled; she simply grabbed my wrist lightly and tugged me in the right direction. After showing me to my locker, pointed towards my first class, she said she'd see me during lunch, and pushed her way back through the crowded hallways.

I made my way towards the room I would be learning Spanish in, room 104, finding my way there pretty easily I took a seat next to the window in the back corner of the room, deciding there was nothing better to do I dug out my text book and began skimming through the pages. Five minutes later the kids started filing in one-by-one until finally I noticed someone was now occupying the once empty seat next to me. I looked over out of the corner of my eye to see a very tall boy, with brown eyes and hair to match, looking at me. He would open his mouth to speak but nothing came out; he did this several times before I smiled and turned my head towards him.

"Hi."

"Hello." He smiled warmly at me, "first day?" he laughed pointing at my text book, "obviously you're attempting to go unnoticed, heads up… the more you pay attention, the more they smell how new you are." He pointed to the students around us. I began laughing but was cut short by a man with short curly hair.

"Hey guys!" He half shouted, "We have a new student today." I felt my face flush, "her name is Taluca Boyd, she just transferred from Florida, so let's say hi."

"Hi." The class greeted in a less than enthusiastic tone, but I couldn't really blame them for it, it was eight o'clock in the morning, I'm sure I would have sounded the same.

"Hi." I answered sinking a bit in my seat. "You can really just call me Luca."

"Well, hello Luca, I'm Mr. Shuester and I will be you're Spanish coach." He laughed before turning his attention to the chalk board and began writing that day's lesson on it.

"Luca?" the boy next to me whispered, "you went to Middleton elementary?"

Shock overtook my face, "yes?"

"My name is Finn… Hudson, we used to play together during recess." He stated with a smile that stretched across his face. Of course I remembered him, well, now I did anyways. We hung out until the day I moved. How would I ever forget who he was?

"Finn, I'm up here." Mr. Shuester sounded stern, but you could see through his façade; he was the friend type, not the teacher type, he would be stern only when needed, otherwise he wanted you to be open and honest with him, much like he promised he would be with you. From what I could tell I was going to like this school.

"Sorry Mr. Shue."

For the duration of the class I stared at the boy sitting next to me, he was clearly struggling with the language in front of him; he caught me a few times, blushed, and shot a crooked smile my way.

[&takeachance]

It's Thursday. Rachel had been riding me since Monday to try for Glee. I sat and stared at the bowl of cereal in front of me for a few minutes before I decided it was useless and made my way to the front door. Just as I locked the door I heard a husky voice behind me, "Luca?"

"Yes?" I answered without even turning around.

"It's me… ya know, Finn?"

Pulling the key out of the lock I laughed and looked at him, "I know who you are, Finn, no need to tell me all the time." I pushed past him gently and began my fifteen minute walk to school.

"Can I walk with you?" I heard him ask from beside me.

"Sure." I smiled politely, after a few minutes I could see him opening his mouth to speak and shutting it again. This had been happening all week, "what is it that you want to ask me exactly? Because you've been following me around like a lost puppy since Monday."

"Will you please come to Glee?"

"Will you stop being so awkward if I do?" I shot back sarcastically.

"I can't make any promises." He mumbled something else quickly after but I couldn't quite catch it.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." He smirked.

"What happened to Amelia? I mean I haven't seen her around school and I've been trying to call her cell but there's no answer or anything."

"Oh." His head dropped to look at his feet. "She was in a drunken driving accident a month ago. Some idiot hit her; she-she didn't make it."

"Oh."

"Yeah, I'm so sorry." The rest of the walk was quiet. Not that it was horribly long, but enough for me to feel awkward. I made it to the doors before I looked up at Finn and let the tears flow. I had just talked to Amelia two months ago to tell her I would be back in Ohio. We were both excited for my return, I felt so stupid for not being more curious as to why I hadn't heard from her. But it was usual for us not to talk for months at a time. I felt Finn wrap his arms around me and pull me close to him, squeezing me tightly, putting his lips to my ear I could feel his warm breath, "it's gonna be okay. We have all of our classes together today; I'm going to be right here, whenever you need me." I just looked up at him, blinked, mustered the best smile I could, and then planted my face back in the soaked spot on his sweatshirt.

"Thanks." I whispered.

"Finn?!" I heard a shrill voice from behind me. "What are you doing?" Now the tone was demanding.

"This is one of Amelia and I's friends, no one told her what happened, I was just comforting her Quinn, chill out."

"Chill out!?" she stomped.

I slowly drifted my way away from the two as their argument progressed, I could tell this Quinn character was trouble. That's when I caught a glimpse of my cousin coming through the glass doors of school. Though I was still upset a huge smile crept across my face as he saw me. We had always been the closest in the family, which is why it was weird that I hadn't heard about Amelia, he was in love with her. Or so I thought.

"Noah!" I yelled running towards him. "I've missed you so much; I haven't seen you all week!" I laughed as he picked me up and spun me around.

"Yeah, well… I've been here." He smiled. "I've seen you with Finn so I knew you were in good hands. Speaking of where is he?"All I could do was point at the forming crowd in the hallway as you could hear insult to insult being thrown back and forth between the couple. "Don't worry about it." He laughed at my apparent nerves.

"Well… they may or may not be fighting because of me." I shrugged. "He told me about Amelia, I cried, he hugged me, and then she screamed." I paused. "It's actually kind of funny." I began laughing before hugging my cousin for a last time, "I'm going to my locker. Otherwise; I'm going to be late." I made it through the rest of the day smoothly bumping into Rachel a few times and assuring her she would see me at the Glee meeting at 3:30 that afternoon. I tried to avoid Finn for the majority but he finally caught me in the hall between our last two classes of the day.

"I would have said this earlier but you've been ignoring me all day. I just wanted to say I'm sorry, she just gets so jealous, and I don't know how to handle it. We never used to be like this." He grabbed the back of his neck and began rubbing, he was worried about something and of course I was going to pry.

"What are you worried about?"

"How'd- ah." As the realization hit him he smiled and pulled his hand away from his neck, "good memory. Anyway, I uhm… I broke up with Quinn. Which I don't know if that was smart. She's pregnant. She says it's mine, but I know she's lying, the way she says it happened, it couldn't have. But I stuck around anyway, she can't do it alone, but she doesn't know that I know. Nobody knows that I know, except you." He paused, "I'm rambling sorry."

"It's okay." I laughed, "But I would tell her you know that you aren't the father."

"You're right. I just want to know who is before I spill." By this point we had successfully made it to our classroom and taking roll call.

An hour and a half later I was making my way into the music room at WMHS. It wasn't large, but it wasn't small either. I sat down on one of the three platforms that held desks and waited for Mr. Shuester to walk through the door. A few minutes later I was relieved to see Rachel walking through the door on the heels of Mr. Shuester. "Hi. I'm in your Spanish class, I wanted to join Glee."

He smiled at me for a second, "can you sing?" he questioned.

"Definitely, I can definitely sing, or so I'm told."

"She can." I turned to see Finn entering the room with a few people behind him, one being my cousin and the others were all sorts of characters. I was positive the doe eyed, fashion trendy, boy standing next to a heftier girl with dark skin was gay. Moving down the line I saw a girl with bright colors in her hair, it looked like she had a bit of edge no matter how coy she appeared. The rest were football players, and then three cheerleaders. One of which I recognized as Quinn from the earlier spat in the hallway. I smiled at Finn to say thank you and made my way towards the piano. Sitting down I nervously placed the sheet music in front of me. "You're going to do great." Finn spoke from next to me.

"Yeah, I'm just nervous." I smiled sheepishly.

"Come on, just like the old days. I'll play, you sing, and look it's even the same music." He laughed. "We can totally do this." He smiled again before I laughed back and addressed the room of people in front of me. "My name is Taluca Boyd and I will be performing Celine Dion's song Taking Chances. Finn is going to accompany me on piano."

There were various whispers across the room before they stopped and waited for the music to start playing, as if on cue the notes echoed through the room as I opened my mouth to sing, "Don't know much about your life// don't know much about your world// but I don't want to be alone tonight, on this planet they call earth// You don't know about my past// and I don't have a future figured out…"

"_Come one Luca, it's only a solo. I've heard you sing before, you're going to be amazing." The same boy with the same brown eyes and crooked smiled was trying to pump me up before the rehearsal. Tomorrow was the day for solo tryouts. It's sixth grade; I still think he's perfect. Instead of the butterflies crashing around my stomach I could feel them flapping through my veins. He always made me feel this way; everyday since I was eight and sitting on the swings with Amelia. He sat down and motioned for me to sit next to him, we were sitting in his living room, his Mom usually watched me after school, and it made my parents feel more 'safe'. So I would hang out with Finn and they had some peace of mind. "Come on." He pushed._

"_Okay, I'm ready when you are." I laughed admitting defeat and taking a seat next to him on the piano bench._

"_From the top." He smiled as he began playing the song I wanted to use to audition for the solo that year. It was Celine Dion's song Taking Chances. As I finished the song I looked up at the boy who even at a young age towered over me. He stood and pulled me towards him leaning in as he did so and gently pushed our lips together. Pulling away we both blushed as his mom yelled to let us know that she had just arrived home._

I smiled as I finished the song, "what do you say to taking chances// what do you say to jumping off the edge? // never knowing if there's solid ground below// or a hand to hold, or hell to pay// what do you say, what do you say? // don't know much about your life// and I don't know much about your world." I stared at the people in the room for a few minutes before I looked at Finn, and shot him a pleading look, but he stared at me just like the rest of them. "Was I that bad?" I laughed.

"No you were amazing." Rachel broke the silence.

"Yeah, I knew you could sing Lu, I just didn't know how well." My cousin spoke from behind Rachel.

"You know her?" Quinn asked sitting to the side of him, "how?"

"She's my cousin." He laughed, we shared the same dark hair and eyes, but nothing else was the same.

"There's no way you're related to Puck." She snapped.

"Well… my family tree differs from your opinion." I shot.

"You're in." Mr. Shuester finally spoke from the corner of the room, "we could definitely use your talent." He smiled.

"Awesome." I smiled looking to Finn who seemed to be just as excited.


	3. Chapter 3

"Yeah, Noah, I know… but-"

"No 'buts' it's 9:30 in the morning, I really don't want to argue with you right now."

"He knows it's not his and I KNOW that you know something, Noah Puckerman." We were having the same argument that we had been since that Thursday two months ago, I knew Quinn was lying, and had mentioned something to my cousin. His face immediately went pale which from him indicates he knows something worth knowing. He definitely did. I was still trying to pry it out of him. "Just tell me, we've never had secrets, and I don't think it's fair for either of us for you to start now."

"Fine."

"Really?" I hadn't been expecting to win this argument.

"Really meet me at the park." And with that I heard a loud click to let me know he'd hung up and then my LCD screen went blank. I shot out of bed and ran to my closet to throw on my zebra print long tank and my MLKHS hoodie with some leggings. After checking myself in the mirror I threw my hair in a messy bun and grabbed my car keys and purse off of my night stand and made my way down the stairs. "Brandon, I'm going to the park with Noah. I'll be back at some point." I laughed pushing open the front door and making my way towards my brand new, jet black, Charger. Sometimes I really appreciated my parent's gifts. As I drove into what we called 'downtown' Lima I noticed just how far into fall we were. All of the trees on every road had either a yellow, orange or red color to them, varying shades, but still each was as vibrant as the next.

The road was just past the edge of town and the same as it always had been, my parents used to take us here when we were kids to see the puppet shows in the fall. I spent the majority of my time staring at the bright fall colors instead of enjoying the puppets. Eventually Noah and I would sneak off and find a pile of leaves or swing on the swing sets. When he was in trouble he would come here and just sit in the tower of the play structure and I would come find him. Some things never change. I made my way into the park, paid for a day pass and made my way past the 'Puppet Palace' and towards the back where the play equipment is located. I caught him out of the corner of my eye and slowly came to a halt; he was sitting exactly where I had expected.

I opened my car door and made my way towards where he was sitting with his head to his knees and his hands on the back of his neck, kind of like when you do a tornado drill in school. "Hey." I spoke quietly; I didn't want to startle him. When I got no answer from him I spoke again a little louder, "Noah?" He finally met my gaze tears were apparent in his eyes. I quickened my pace and threw his arms around him and squeezed as hard as I could, "what's wrong?"

"Finn is my best friend." He spoke flatly.

"I know he is?" I pulled back and looked at him quizzically.

"Four months ago there was this party and almost everyone was there. Me, Quinn, Amelia, and Finn were all hanging out in this living room of this guys house, and everyone besides Finn and Amelia were drinking, they knew that they would have to drive some people home and so Quinn and I drank… a lot. Finn ended up leaving to take a group of people and then head home and asked Amelia if she would take me and Quinn. I don't remember much, I remember Quinn and I ended up in a bedroom some time after the party had started to die down and Amelia wanted to leave so she came to find us… We had just finished and it looked so bad. The look on her face… she stormed out of the room and was yelling about telling Finn. The next morning…" he stopped and began to sob into my shoulder again.

"You found out that she had died." I finished his sentence for him. "You have to tell Finn."

"I can't, Luca, he's my best friend, I can't lose him." It was rare to see Noah so vulnerable.

"Do you care about Quinn or was it just something stupid?"

"Yes I care about Quinn. It just wasn't- I didn't mean for- I was so stupid."

"If you tell Finn I can tell you right now he's going to break up with her." I was desperately trying to get him to tell Finn so I wouldn't have to live with the guilt of knowing. As much as Finn was my friend, Noah was family, and I would keep his secret until he died. We both knew that much.

"They are never going to break up, Lu; it's about time you get it through your head."

"He should still know the truth." I huffed under my breath. My cousin and I sat like that until around noon and then decided to grab something to eat.

"Pizza?" he questioned as we pulled into the downtown area again.

"You know me too well." I smiled as we got in my car and made our way back to the middle of town, "Burt's Pizzeria?" I laughed as he nodded and we pulled into one of the parallel spots on the 2 mile stretch of road. As we walked in I noticed Rachel sitting by herself in a booth, "sit with Rachel?" I asked cocking my head in her direction.

My cousin shot me a glare and shook his head, "are you trying to get the rep of a loser?"

"No, I'm trying to make good friends, not friends based on the social ladder." I shot with a smile before making my way over and tapping her on the shoulder, "mind if we sit with you?" I smiled at her and motioned to the rest of the empty booth.

"Not at all." She smiled back at me. In the last couple months I had definitely become the closest to Rachel. Sure I got along with everyone, but Rachel and I were like two peas in a pod. Except for our looks we were almost exactly the same person. We began a simple conversation about glee, which turned into fashion, which went to football, which went to so many different things I began to lose track and by the middle of it Noah actually seemed to be enjoying himself. Just as Rachel was explaining her family dynamic to Noah who she kept calling Puck I heard the clang of the bell over the door and caught the gaze of none other than Finn. I excused myself and made my way towards him.

"Hey." I tested; we had gotten into a fight about Quinn over a week ago and hadn't really spoken since.

"Hey." He looked to his feet as my eyes darted everywhere in the tiny restaurant except where they should have, "I'm really sorry I yelled at you, I haven't really been mad, I'm just not good with knowing that I hurt people's feelings and then I just kind of avoid the situation as a whole."

"I understand." I spoke quietly. "Can you meet me at my house later? I have something I want to talk to you bout that you'll definitely want to know. Just don't say anything to Noah. He'll kill me if he knows that I said anything."

"Uhm…" he paused, "well, I have plans with Quinn until like ten." I saw him looked back down at his feet and grab the back of his neck again.

"Stop worrying… I'm not going to kill you, just come over when you're done, and I'll tell you everything. Deal?" I smiled.

"Deal." He shot a crooked smile back at me and then made his way to the counter to place his order.

"What was that about?" Noah shot me a look.

"Nothing, we got into a fight, and I though it was time I say sorry was all. Calm down." Before I could process what was happening my cousin was out of the booth and talking to Finn. It wasn't until Finn looked over at me, his face dropped, and he balled a fist that I realized Noah had decided to tell him.

"You slept with Quinn?!" I heard him shout just before his fist connected with Noah's face.

Noah just sat on the ground in awe, I'm sure just trying to figure out what to do. As I stared at my cousin there was a mixture of feelings running through me, one being how proud I was of him for manning up, the other being anger for doing it just so I couldn't, and the third was complete admiration for not fighting back; I knew that that was a genuinely hard decision he had just made. I'm not sure why I expected anything less from him, but I really hadn't expected it to turn out this way. As I extended my hand to my cousin to help him up I heard 'Mary's Song' by Taylor Swift explode from my phone sitting on the wood counter at the other end of the pizzeria. When I got there I noticed I had one new text message from Finn.

_Finn: I'll be at your house as soon as I'm done talking to Quinn._

_ Me: okay, I'll see you soon. Are you okay?_

_ Finn: fantastic._

[&takeachance]

It had been hours since I had last seen Finn when he finally arrived on my door step. I swung the door open and he huffed through me on his way to the living room. Luckily my brother had heard about what happened and was at the Puckerman household making sure our cousin was okay. I walked quietly into the living room and saw Finn sitting on the couch closest the sliding glass window. I'm sure he could hear my feet tapping on the wood flooring of the room as I made my way to the oversized chair placed about ten feet from where he was sitting; but he never looked up. As I sat I pulled my knees up to my chest and just stared at the kid in front of me. Some times I forget how young I am, how young we all are. He was devastated; I hadn't seen him this bad since I left the first time.

_I was sitting on my bed, twelve years old, staring at the boy in front of me. "Finn, I have to tell you something." I had invited him over to tell him some pretty bad news as far as we were concerned. I was moving. To where yet I had no idea, but I was going to be gone. Despite the forlorn expression on my face for the last 45 minutes, Finn had been rambling about the football game he had seen two hours ago. The melancholy tone that I had decided to use finally worked as he sat down next to me on my bed, grabbed my hand, and cocked his head to the side to let me know that I indeed had his full attention. "I'm moving." It was barely above a whisper, but I could tell he had heard me._

_ "That's not a funny joke." He dropped my hand and shifted angrily._

_ "I know Finn, which is why I wouldn't have said it if I wasn't serious." I stared at him blankly as I watched the emotions change in his eyes. "You're my best friend, I don't want to leave, but my parents are going… I can't just stay with Brandon, I asked trust me, they said no. I have to go with them. I'm sorry." Tears were filling my eyes as I looked at the boy who was tremendously disappointed, his face white, jaw open as if to protest everything I was telling him, and yet no words followed. We sat in silence for what seemed like hours but it was probably only minutes before he laced his fingers in mine again and kissed my temple._

"Lu?"

"Hmm?" I replied shaking my head; his voice had snapped me back to reality.

"Can you figure out why?"

"I can tell you that mistakes happen and that people will be people, but why is a very hard question to answer when it comes to anything honestly." I met his gaze for the first time since we started talking. I didn't see the same guy who had walked through my front door, instead I saw a young boy probably around twelve sitting in his place, asking me questions, and apparently I should have known the answers. As he shifted uncomfortably I shook my head and the young boy disappeared and I could see the older boy in front of me again. My eyes shifted to the clock. "My brother will be home soon." I smiled, "he went to check on Noah."

"I hit him pretty hard." He chuckled.

"Yeah, you did. He took it pretty well if you ask me." I agreed.

"I'm so glad it's only Saturday." He paused for a second. "It's eight o'clock on a Saturday night, lets go do something." His forehead crinkled a bit, "actually… let's just rent a movie and watch it here or at my house or something… I don't feel like being around people."

"Define 'people' because Rachel and I had plans tonight to rent some movies." I laughed. "So if you don't mind her joining then, yeah, I'm down."

"I wouldn't mind her being here. She's a really good friend." He smiled.

"Agreed." I returned a grin and made my way to the door, just as I was throwing on my favorite pair of black Uggs and red, checkered, jacket, Finn came around the corner.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to put on my scarf, and then I'm going to get the movies, duh, and then to get Rachel to come over. Not in that order actual, but that's pretty much the to-do list I've got in my head."

"I'll come." He spoke grabbing his letterman jacket from off of the couch.

I shot him a smile and made my way out of the large door and across my lawn that was riddled with leaves from the dozen or so trees that were planted along the road I lived on. A few second later I heard less than stealthy crunching noises behind me to let me know where Finn was. I knocked on Rachel's door and was greeted by [one] of her fathers; I called him Abba just as Rachel did. They were my second family here and in a few short months I was as close to them as I was with Rachel.

"Hey sunshine!" He greeted.

"Abba!" I smiled as he pulled me into a hug.

"Who's this handsome young man? Is this that Finn Hudson boy you speak so fondly of? Oh, he is cute." He winked at me as my cheeks caught fire.

"Abba" I heard Rachel shush from behind the door.

"Rach!" I laughed as I grabbed her. "Finn needs some friends, so we're going to do a movie night, and since we have plans I figured we could just include him?"

"Of course, of course… lets head out." She grabbed a coat and bundled up just as I had, slipping on her shoes she pushed through her father pausing briefly for a kiss on the cheek. "I'm going to the movie place, then to Lu's, so if you need me, call my cell." And with that we were off.

"So you guys talk about me? Is that really true?" Finn looked to Rachel and I as my cheeks began to burn again. "You totally do, you're blushing." He began laughing loudly. I finally found my way back to my house and climbed in the car. I tried avoiding eye contact or any conversation from him almost the entire trip. As we approached the rental store I came to a stop, threw my car in park, and practically ran into the store. Finn finally caught up with me as I was wondering aimlessly down the comedy aisle. "So you really think I'm cute?" he was wearing a goofy smile on his face.

"So what if I do?" I whispered back finally meeting his eyes with mine.

"Nothing, you're just really cool, and I've really missed you," and with that he kissed the top of my head and walked towards the new releases to see what Rachel was looking at. I stood and stared and him for a second before shrugging it off and continuing on my path. There was no way I was going to read into any of it. There was no use in getting my hopes up on Finn Hudson. No use at all.


End file.
